Savannah's Midnight Hour: Boosterism, Growth, and Commerce in a NineteenthCentury American City by Lisa L. Denmark (review)

Although Savannah, Georgia, is now more commonly equated with bachelorette parties, St. Patrick's Day celebrations, and debates over plantation weddings, Lisa L. Denmark explores some of the lesser known but vital components of this charming southern city. In Savannah's Midnight Hour: Boosterism, Growth, and Commerce in a Nineteenth-Century American City, Denmark sheds light on the growing pains of Savannah during a tumultuous nineteenth century of growth and financial insecurity. Front and center in this story was municipal debt—a financial industry that exploded in the nineteenth century. Municipal debt stood at $25 million in 1840 in the United States, but that number rose to $821 million just forty years later. At its root, Savannah's Midnight Hour shows readers how the city struggled to remain financially afloat, even nearly succumbing to bankruptcy in 1877. But as Denmark aptly demonstrates, the collapse in 1877 did not stem from the yellow fever outbreak that plagued the city but rather from "a long-standing ideology of over-optimistic risktaking for a goal that soon proved illusory" (p. 8).

After a brief overview of Savannah's founding and early life, as part of James E. Oglethorpe's colony, and its subsequent experience during the Revolutionary War, Denmark dedicates the bulk of the work to the nineteenth century. She demonstrates that, from Savannah's earliest days, the rival city of Charleston, South Carolina, fueled Savannah's jealousy and bond issuances. As cotton gained ground in the early-nineteenth-century economy, Savannah moved in earnest to beat its South Carolina neighbor to be a key port to ship cotton across the Atlantic Ocean. This thirst for cotton led the city to push for a canal. But Savannah's boosters found themselves just as frustrated as those in other municipalities who found cost overruns and delays in construction denying the realization of profits. The failure of the canal did little to assuage the concerns of the city, which went on to pursue a railroad to try once again to draw upcountry cotton to Savannah and away from rival Charleston. Despite economic panic in 1837, Savannah retained its faith in the railroad project—one that saw much of the rail line eliminated during the Civil War.

Denmark provides some context to Civil War and Reconstruction-era Savannah, which is largely centered on two key mayors of the era, Edward C. Anderson and John Screven. Denmark's analysis of Reconstruction-era Savannah focuses on the political machinations in the city and Savannah's increasing struggles to meet its financial obligations, with a small emphasis on the changing racial dynamics in the city itself. Altering the tax schemes and tax bases of Savannah did little to save the city's finances. Finally, in 1877, a yellow fever outbreak shook the city and provided a fitting culmination to the tumultuous period and a realization "that boundless goals were no longer attainable with the establishment of just one more rail connection or just one more steamship line" (pp. 12–13).

While Denmark provides her readers with a compelling tale of Savannah's economic rise and demise, I could not help but wonder what outside interests thought of Savannah's actions—particularly its creditors. While there is a brief nod to a meeting with New York City creditors in 1877, this reader would have greatly appreciated a deeper look into the nature of creditors and what compelled them to keep coming back to the Savannah well, despite the precarious nature of Savannah's finances. These creditors were not restricted domestically, as European bankers invested heavily in American municipal debt, and even a cursory glance at these individuals or institutions would have helped provide a more complete picture of Savannah's financial plight in the nineteenth century. These reservations aside, Savannah's Midnight Hour is a welcome addition to nineteenth-century capitalism...